Recognizing September As Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. TRAHAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of September as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and to highlight two bipartisan bills, the Give Kids a Chance Act and the BRAIN Act, that will help save lives. Cancer is a disease which affects nearly every household and community around the country, and nowhere is it more heartbreaking than when it affects our children.

This month marks an opportunity to raise awareness for childhood cancer and support research for new treatment and therapy avenues. Just this year alone, nearly 10,000 children will be diagnosed with pediatric cancer. This is an issue that could not be more important and pressing.

The Give Kids a Chance Act removes many of the hurdles and barriers to researching treatments for rare pediatric diseases. It restores FDA incentives through the Rare Pediatric Disease Priority Review Voucher Program, encouraging companies to develop drugs for rare childhood diseases. The PRV program has already helped develop new treatments for 200,000 patients spanning nearly 50 rare diseases. Muscular dystrophy, sickle cell, and tropical diseases have all seen medical breakthroughs during this program.

Give Kids a Chance will also reauthorize the FDA to take action against drug sponsors that fail to comply with pediatric study requirements. Thus, ensuring that patients get the latest and best treatments that they require. As Dr. Benjamin Ebert, President of Dana- Faber, said, ``sustained federal investment is needed to ensure that every child has the opportunity for a life free from disease.'' This bill would cement that investment and sustain our leadership in biotechnology, while costing the taxpayer nothing.

Similarly, the BRAIN Act is another common-sense, bipartisan piece of legislation that will advance pediatric care. Recently, brain cancer has passed leukemia as the leading cause of cancer-related deaths of pediatric patients. While the number of cases is growing, survival rates have remained stagnant for 45 years. This needs to change.

The BRAIN Act will increase awareness for clinical trials, invest funding into glioblastoma therapeutics and cellular immunotherapy research, and authorize the FDA to ensure brain tumor patient access to clinical trials. Many aggressive pediatric cases have a survival rate of less than the average school year. We have the responsibility and opportunity to try and change that. Echoing what David Arons, of the National Brain Tumor Society, stated, ``now is the time to build on government support for research and access to care for cancer patients.''

During this Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, I urge my colleagues to support these two bipartisan bills and give pediatric patients, across the country, a better chance to fight and survive.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source